Apple's 'overtly sexual' iPhone crackdown purges 5,000 apps

Following last week's revelation that Apple had reversed its policy on sexual content in the iPhone App Store, a new report claims more than 5,000 inappropriate applications have been removed from the download destination.

That number was supported by tracking from AppShopper.com, which found that more that nearly 4,000 applications were removed last Friday, Feb. 18. While the level of removals is typically about 100 per day, the total remained uncharacteristically high over the weekend. The total number of removed applications is said to have amounted to roughly 3 percent of the entire App Store.

The developer, ChilliFresh, claimed that an Apple representative said images of both women and men in bikinis are inappropriate, as are words that have a sexual connotation. Apple allegedly is not allowing applications that can be "sexually arousing," or that imply sexual content.

The developer has expressed disappointment with Apple, as they claim "Wobble" does not include any offending images when installed. Instead, the application allows users to select their own pictures and add "jiggle points" to photos. The application has been downloaded more than 970,000 times.

The application also was not modified in over a half year before Apple allegedly changed its policies and removed it and other applications found to have "overtly sexual content." And though it was claimed more than 5,000 applications have been removed, other adult oriented content, such as the official 99 cent Playboy app, remains for sale.

Another application, "Adult Sex Life," features a woman in a bikini as its icon, but offers informational tips and is portrayed as an "introductory guide to sex." Rated for ages 17 and up, the $2.99 application includes mature themes, profanity and "frequent/intense sexual content or nudity."

With iPhone OS 3.0, Apple added an age rating system for applications. This not only allowed parents to set appropriate application access for their families, but also opened up the potential for developers to release applications with more adult-oriented content.

I for one am glad to see it. There are some that are always pushing the limits which forces others to make more rules. Then they, the people responsible, never end up taking the heat for what they have done. Why don't we blame the people that really should be blamed for these changes?

I for one am glad to see it. There are some that are always pushing the limits which forces others to make more rules. Then they, the people responsible, never end up taking the heat for what they have done. Why don't we blame the people that really should be blamed for these changes?

It's a very simple matter to transfer these "overtly sexual" apps to a more mature section of the App Store and wall them off with adult access.

This is something Apple should have done in the first place, now they appear like censorship nazi's and denying people's right to access to adult themed material.

Supposedly the human male thinks about sex a average of 6 times a day and is even willing to pay for sex. Adult themed material is a safe avenue to vent, rather than being sexual harassing to actual people or engaging in risky conduct.

Apple is trying to make the App Store pristine for a reason, the iPad and selling them to schools. It's perfectly understandable why nobody in their right mind wants any reference anything sexual in that environment. It's a shame that that small market is dictating what everyone else has to abide by when Apple could create walled sections by default in the App Store instead and cater to everyone.

What's going to happen when parent's complain about the religious Apps programming their children into being cultists?

Apple has their right to do what they want with their App Store, including running it into the ground.

But they should learn from others who gone on the same path and tried censorship and found out it's a slippery slope. They should have walled sections as default and let people decide which "backroom content" they want to go into.

At least Steve didn't put a camera in the iPad yet, so the child predators in the schools can't use it to spy on the students in their bedrooms...

This is so totally wrong. It's such a horrific mis-step from Apple and so terribly immoral in and of itself. This will make jail-breaking popular again.

Even if the apps were indeed pornographic it would be wrong, but none of these apps show anything more than is on the cover of hundreds of popular magazines sold in drug stores for the last 40 years or so (and I'm not talking porn magazines.) The content being banned for being "overtly sexual" is tamer than Maxim magazine or Sports Illustrated or Vogue.

They will eventually reverse themselves on this for that reason and look all the more stupid when they do.

This is so totally wrong. It's such a horrific mis-step from Apple and so terribly immoral in and of itself. This will make jail-breaking popular again.

Even if the apps were indeed pornographic it would be wrong, but none of these apps show anything more than is on the cover of hundreds of popular magazines sold in drug stores for the last 40 years or so (and I'm not talking porn magazines.) The content being banned for being "overtly sexual" is tamer than Maxim magazine or Sports Illustrated or Vogue.

They will eventually reverse themselves on this for that reason and look all the more stupid when they do.

Really? So if someone owns a small grocery store and one day decides to stop selling, Playboy, Penthouse, hell Hightimes and Biker mags because the locals complain about them, does that make him wrong as well? It's the exact same thing.

One of the reasons I admire Apple is that it is not afraid to set and enforce its own rules and guidelines. It's analogous to an individual with the integrity and the courage to set his own course in life and to follow it. Just as an individual should be afforded the liberty to determine his own legal course in life, so should a corporate entity like Apple be able to determine its own legal course.

Policy is necessary in order for there to be direction and agreement amongst a group like Apple. Though we outside Apple may wonder at times just what that direction is, it's not for us to determine, other than to express our opinions of it via our purchase or lack thereof of its products.

This is so totally wrong. It's such a horrific mis-step from Apple and so terribly immoral in and of itself. This will make jail-breaking popular again.

Even if the apps were indeed pornographic it would be wrong, but none of these apps show anything more than is on the cover of hundreds of popular magazines sold in drug stores for the last 40 years or so (and I'm not talking porn magazines.) The content being banned for being "overtly sexual" is tamer than Maxim magazine or Sports Illustrated or Vogue.

They will eventually reverse themselves on this for that reason and look all the more stupid when they do.

No, you're totally wrong in condemning Apple for setting its own course as a free enterprise.